Ikechukwu Onyeka
Written By– Uche Jumbo Rodriguez
Cast– Desmond Elliot, Uche Jumbo, Robert Peters, Keira Hewatch, Mofe Duncan
Genre– Drama
Run time– 1:25:30
Watching this movie, I tried to figure out what Uche Jumbo is trying to achieve? Is she thinking better production quality, casting or script writing, because I am kind of confused, because churning out movies every other month or so is the direction I believe Nollywood should be leaving behind.
‘Lies Men Tell’ is yet another drama sketch from the stables of Uche Jumbo productions. While it is about 3different couples and the lies their husband’s tell, the main characters are Desmond Eliot and Uche Jumbo. Desmond plays the role of Igbo business man and philanderer Emeka Ejiofor while Uche is his wife.
Hmmm… Desmond as an Igbo man was a sight. He got the mannerisms, but he was totally obnoxious and annoying. I know some Igbo people that sound like he did, but do they shout, (Hell No), are they on point when it comes to dressing and been well kept, (Hell Yeah!!!) Even though he was a complete empty vessel just acting up and making drama, I felt he could have brought more to his character. The first thing that came to mind when he spoke was acting coaches (more like character coaches), they are truly lacking in our parts.
Mrs. Rodriguez, I guess I mentioned earlier in my reviews that Uche is better when it comes to being psychotic and crazy. When she is screaming and giving us a horrible headache, she seems to be on point, that’s what she brought to
Grace’s character. I remembered her in ‘Games Men Play (similar much), where she played the subtle dutiful wife that loved her cheating husband, but the roles aren’t the same. When it came to relating with Keira’s character, she was totally unbelievable and it was clear she couldn’t handle the situation. The car issue was another irritating aspect and I would like to say, Uche, women have guts and when they plan to be vengeful (nothing’s worse than a woman scorned) they do it to the extreme (Movies like War of the Roses, Fatal Attraction and Waiting to Exhale will
point you in the right direction) So when you take your husband’s car to punish him, sell it, run the business you want to and then tell him you took his car!!! (smh)
The other characters, were add-ons, after all the movie is titled ‘Lies Men Tell’ so there just had to be men. Roberts didn’t sound the least bit smart, convincing or believable, at one point he started sounding Igbo probably cause
of hanging out with Emeka, but it’s not acceptable. His wife played by Keira played the noisy neighbor very well, was she annoying (check), did she sound like she could pull dust (check), handle her home properly, maybe, does this sound like a role that requires any particular skill or coaching that’s a big NOPE!!!
For the last couple, Mofe and Folake, I believe both of them are new in the industry, not sure if they are making any waves, but I have seen Mofe in False along with this movie and I am not sold or impressed. He has this dampened look in his roles (like a dumb blonde kinda of look, no offense) and it’s not flattering at all. As for Folake same’ol, same ol’ but for her changing hairstyles (which is meant to be a blessing in disguise for Nollywood productions) just shows how little effort we put into post production as she had one hairstyle, then another and then 2months
later she had that same look. (Omg guys!!!)
From this review, the verdict is probably clear, but I just have to add a couple of notes to writer and director, post production is basically where the beauty of your work comes to life, so careful thoughts and observation need to
come to bear here. There were a couple of unnecessary scenes the campus babes talking about dealing with Emeka as well as the one with Grace and her Aunty this scene took a whole 2minutes, and for what??? Nothing. As these scene did not add anything to the movie and we would have been just fine without them. The lighting was terrible, some scenes were dark that i couldn’t make out faces especially in the bedroom scene and the
pool side/party scene.
Nollywood has totally exploited the cheating man idea or would I say syndrome (the
list of movies on cheating men is endless) that it totally irks me inside, especially when the director crowns it up with
the fact that it happens daily in many households when his movie did little or nothing to correct an act that is as old as time, why bother nah!!!
Xplorenollywood gives the movie ‘Lies Men Tell’ – 3/10
